Holden Claufied a Misfit in Society

Holden's constantly telling that he is different from everyone else, who he defines as "phonies", wearing his hunting cap to make him standout in society, and inability to make a social contact with a Jane Gallagher, who he constantly brings up, are just a few lucid examples of his self-alienation of society. Holden feels and uses this alienation to protect himself from the harshness of society is this constant defense mechanism eventually leads to his

Another quote that shows that Holden is a victim of society is ¨I'd pretend I was one of those deaf mutes¨. ¨That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody¨ [Salinger] page 198. This quote demonstrates that Holden

The death of Holden’s brother Allie at a young age adds to Holden’s negativity as well as stopping Holden from accepting inevitable change. Allie dies immaturely of leukemia. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it” (p. 39). Holden is in the hospital because he broke his fist, and he was unable to attend Allie’s funeral. Holden has trouble accepting Allie’s death because he never said goodbye to Allie. His relationship with Allie is similar to his maturity. Just as Holden is unable to accept his brother’s death, Holden is not able to accept that

Throughout the novel, Holden attempts to find the true from of himself as he struggles with the social interactions around him. Due to the struggle and confusion that arouses from it,

Holden is more of an extreme case when it comes to the resentment of conformity in American culture as he was extremely judgmental, however because of the extreme judgement he was not blinded by the norms that came with the culture of conformity, trying to fit or being accepted.

A concept Holden had observed from the start of the novel was the materialism and egotism of people around him. There are numerous situations where this is displayed and he detests these ideas. For instance, Holden exclaims that almost everyone he encounters

Allie's death caused Holden to be like this because ever since Allie died, Holden has been scared to lose someone. He doesn't want to get close to someone and feel the pain of loss like he did when Allie died. Holden is scared to create friendships because he doesn't want to go through another death. He judges people harshly as an excuse to not like them. Allie's death caused Holden to be scared to get close to people.

            Holden is quite skilled at citing exactly what is wrong with other people.  However he never acknowledges his own faults.  He was sure the entire world was out of step with him.  As Alan Stewart explains, ?Holden seemed to divide the world into two groups.  He was in one group, along with a few other people such as his little sister, Phoebe, and

Holden experiences extreme difficulty accepting his current realities and one of the main factors causing this is the lasting negative impact his brother Allies death had on his life. Firstly, when Holden decides to leave his school, he tells readers , “I don’t care if it’s a sad goodbye or a bad goodbye, but when I leave a place, I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse” (Salinger, 4). Holden’s need for closure is evident in this quote. When Allie died, it was very unexpected and he was not prepared to let him go, resulting in his denial that his brother is actually

     Holden was very introspective. He was very aware of himself. He knew what he like and disliked, even though some of his actions contradicted his beliefs. He felt like the world was going to hell in a hand basket. He could not understand how other people in the world would not want a pure lifestyle. A life that was sure and stable. He hated being moved around from school to school not having many friends. He decided that it was immoral to follow a system that was based on hypocrisy and shallow wants. He rebelled in order to create a system of his own in which a pure lifestyle would be the ultimate goal. Holden should have been Buddhist, with out the smoking and drinking. Oh yeah, and the delusions of grandeur. “So I went back to the room and turned on the light, to start packing and all…Then I got the hell out. Some stupid guy had thrown peanut shells all over the stairs, and I damn nearly broke my crazy neck.” Holden talks about leaving and how it affects him emotionally every time

Holden never going to Allie’s funeral gives us insight into why Holden is still holding onto Allie. After Allie’s death, Holden still went through experiences that caused his BPD, neglect and separation. During the time following Allie’s death, Holden’s family was in great grieving, making Holden feel isolated and not getting the attention he needed to fully grow mentally as a child (“National Allegiance on Mental Health”). Holden also expresses twice, that his mother is still grieving over Allie’s death by stating his mother, “still isn’t over my brother Allie yet” (Salinger 155). Holden is also never close to anyone. He meets with his family a limited amount of time throughout the year, and is kicked out of schools, giving him no permanent guidance in his life. Holden constantly describes his expulsion as, getting “the ax” (107). He shows a continuous changing in guardians, because of his attachment to both Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini, both old school teachers from schools he flunked out of. He also dealt with the separation from D.B. his other brother, who moved to Hollywood, Holden seems to be very inspired by him throughout the novel, but is mad that he left (1).

Holden embodies the Everyman archetype because he is regular kid who has no special skills.  Holden values honesty which is evidenced by his hate for those he calls “phonies” whom he believes are dishonest.  Holden first expresses his distaste towards pseudo people when he told his theory of what the daughter of the headmaster at Pencey thought about her father by saying “She probably knew what a phony slob he was,”(Salinger, 2).    It’s this honesty that makes Holden a very open character, almost to the point of indecency, ultimately making him a very unpleasant person to read about, which is ironic considering how much honesty is valued and needed in society.  While Holden’s honesty reflects his personality, it does not completely work for all the other characters in the novel, and for that more values have to be

able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them

     Although Holden is extremely cynical and struggles with relationships, he is not all bad. Inside he is moral and generous. He was very charitable when he gave a considerable donation of twenty dollars to the nuns. Holden has a strange way of loving people.

Holden is deathly afraid of conforming, growing up, and having to assimilate into the phony adult world. As a result he comes off as hypocritical as he is the most prominent phony in the novel. He constantly lies, refuses to connect with others and overlooks his own pain, letting it deeply impact his life. Holden is a compulsive liar; he does not have one honest conversation with anyone except his sister and Jane for the duration of the novel. When he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow, for instance, he claims his name is Rudolf Schmidt and preaches about what an amazing guy her son is, even though he is “the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school.” (61) This shows that Holden falls victim to the same social conventions as everyone else. He says exactly what Mrs. Morrow wants to hear, despite the fact that he